1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printing processing used in an information processing system which includes a printing apparatus capable of conveying a recording medium including information-writable IC chips and which includes an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with the printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, printers which write electronic information to IC chips when printing operations are performed on sheets including the IC chips are used.
When a label is printed using such a printer, for example, a technique of overlay printing using a printing application may be used.
Referring to FIG. 12, overlay printing performed using this type of printer is described.
FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating first overlay printing performed using this type of printer.
In a template, fixed characters and graphics which do not rely on data and a portion (field) into which the data is inserted are defined. In this example, a field F1 is defined.
This template is referred to as a form file 301 and the portion into which the data is inserted is referred to as a field.
A data file 302 is a general text file and includes data in accordance with a specific rule.
In the example shown in FIG. 12, an instruction for inserting data “1000 yen” into the field F1 is described. Then, overlay printing is performed using the form file 301 and the data file 302 whereby an output result 303 which is printed material is obtained.
In the example shown in FIG. 12, data FD, such as “KKKKK”, is displayed in the field F1. With this technique, the desired output result 303 is obtained by remaining a fixed portion, such as a label, unchanged but merely changing the data in the data file 302 is changed.
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating second overlay printing performed using this type of printer. In this example, electronic information is written to an IC chip by the second overlay printing.
As a definition of a form, an attribute indicating “write to the IC chip” is set in a field F2 shown in FIG. 13. Note that a form file 401, a data file 402 and an output result 404 are also shown in FIG. 13.
In a case where data is inserted in a field including the attribute, a printing application instructs a printer to insert the data into the IC chip. Accordingly, data 403 is inserted into the field F2 and written to the IC chip at a time of printing.
However, when the IC chip is physically broken, and therefore, the IC chip denies an access, for example, the data may not be written to the IC chip. In this case, in general, the printer is stopped and displays an error message indicating an occurrence of an error in a panel of the printer, for example.
Thereafter, when a user presses a specific button of the printer, a page in which the error has occurred is skipped and the printing operation is restarted. However, in this case, the following problems arise.
In a case where the error occurred while the data is written to the IC chip, when the printed material is checked with eyes after the printing operation is completed, the user cannot find the error. Furthermore, since the overlay printing operation is interrupted every time an error occurs, entire print efficiency is deteriorated.
To cope with this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-11939 discloses a method for switching a printing operation to another printing operation performed when an error occurs while data is being written to the IC chip.
Accordingly, it takes great deal of time and effort for the user to check a page (hereinafter referred to as an “error page” as needed) in which an error occurs while data is being written to the IC chip and to try to print the page again. Therefore, when an error occurs while data is being written to the IC chip, it is necessary not only to switch the printing operation to another printing operation for failure to be performed on the error page but also to perform an operation of printing data to be printed to the error page to another page (hereinafter referred to as a recovery operation). The recovery operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15.
FIGS. 14 and 15 are diagrams illustrating examples of a label printing operation performed using this type of printing apparatus. In these examples, a label printer performs a printing operation of writing data to an IC chip.
As shown in FIG. 14, when an IC chip writing operation and a printing operation are performed in this order inside the printer 501, the recovery operation is readily performed, since when an error occurs during an IC chip writing operation 502 or an IC chip reading operation 503, a page in which the error occurred is printed on the next page. A reference numeral 504 denotes a drawing operation.
On the other hand, a problem arises when a printing operation and an IC chip writing operation are performed in this order in a printer, as shown in FIG. 15.
The printer which performs the printing operation in such an order generally does not have a function of writing data to an IC chip as a default function of the printer, and therefore, an optional device having the function of writing data to an IC chip is necessary to be set in a sheet feeding portion thereof.
In this case, when an error relating to the IC chip is detected during an IC chip writing operation 603 or an IC chip reading operation 604, the printing operation has already been performed on few pages (for example, a page 605 shown in FIG. 15). Therefore, a page in which the error occurred during the IC chip writing operation cannot be printed on the next page as a recovery operation. A reference numeral 602 denotes a drawing operation.
Note that even in the case where the IC chip writing operation and the printing operation are performed in this order as shown in FIG. 14, a preparation operation performed before performing the printing operation may have been completed in order to improve performance. In this case also, a problem the same as described above may arise.